It's a tiny CRT TV, and its got issues (Sony Watchman FD-10A) 

My fear when taking things like this apart: I successfully fix it so I will have to put it together again :D And the worst is when I have to order a part and it stays disassembled for weeks and I start to forget how it was together... (also I hate when a wire snaps off before taking a photo of its intestines)

Oh wow. I remember these portable TVs of the ‘90s. The Sony Watchman. I always thought these things were as futuristic as they get back then.

The new Lithium Ion 1.5v AA and AAA batteries (like the ones from Pale Blue Earth or AmpTorrent) are *FAR* better than the old nickel-metal-hydride batteries. They actually output 1.5V, they're actually sized correctly, and they last almost as long as non-rechargeable alkaline batteries do. They're definitely not cheap, but they're very much worth it, when you consider the number of times you can recharge them. They're as close to rechargeable alkalines as you're ever going to find.

I always wanted one of these when they were on the market. So cool to see one still working!

Interesting to see inside of one of these tiny models! I've repaired one of the larger screen sizes, the FD-30A if I recall, it's incredible to see a CRT this small (and the interesting tube Sony has used).

Opening up these Sony devices is always a treat. From the indicators to the quality of design and work inside. There are probably exceptions, but more often than not it's a treat!

As soon as you mentioned "foldover," I was like "Yup. Bad Caps." However, I would have simply replaced all the caps because if one was bad, the rest aren't far behind. But that's just me. The dim image upon start up and the screen pot having very little control is likely the other caps. Regardless, nice job! Anything CRT-related is an automatic click for me.

I really like these little TVs. I have one I got from a neighbor that has a cheap plastic hood and magnifier to make it easier to see. Apparently he used to take it on hunting trips and got a lot of use out of it before replacing it with a tiny LCD TV.

Hi, I have the Model fd-20a. It's from 1983. Used it in college. And, yes, it still works. Still cool. Your video is great. Thank you

Within the first 10 seconds you asked the question I've always wondered. I have a number of Sony Walkmans, DAT, MD and cassette that have all suffered from cracking battery doors. I could never figure out why...but I always use rechargable batteries, especially with the DAT machines. Those babies EAT power! ;-)

Back in the late 80's my job was to install and / or repair CCTV. I loved my little Walkman. It allowed me to easily adjust the picture framing and/or focus of CCTV camera without having to climb up and down a 50ft pole a dozen times. Mine had a composite video input. I don't remember if it was stock or if I modified it with a composite input.

I've got a similar device my father had. It doesn't work as good as this one does, but it was one of those novelty things back in the day as well as now even. Nice job correcting the fold-over issue. One day you'll get the brightness corrected no doubt.

I had this same watchman when I was about 15. I used it almost every day riding in the car. It was my favorite thing for quite a while.

I still have the Watchman Voyager. I am from the Netherlands and took it with me in 1989 to the US. Watching TV on the bus on route! It still works!

Adrian, one little suggestion, if I may. When you go to replace a cap or resistor or whatever on a device, make note of which number part in circuit it is you replace. So, for example, if it was capacitor C6 that was causing the problem, list that C6. This is so someone who might have the same device and the same symptoms can narrow it down just as fast. Thank you and you're doing a great job!

I always wanted one of this. Now I couldn't use it even if I purchased one. So, it's great to see you diving into them. I find all the Sony's "walkman, etc." branding and products amazing. I have a walkman, a discman... Great devices.

Something to keep in mind when using those ceramic capacitors: All the ones with type-II (high-κ) dielectrics (like X7R, X5R, or Y5V) have significant voltage dependence to their capacitance--they may be 22 μF when the DC voltage on them is 0, but apply close to their rated voltage and they may have lost as much as 60% of their capacitance! It's reversible; removing the voltage bias will return the capacitance to normal, but that's definitely something to keep in mind with ceramic capacitors. Y5V is generally worse than X5R, which in turn is worse than X7R. Physically larger capacitors generally have less of a voltage coefficient than smaller ones. You don't have to worry about this at all though when working with type-I dielectrics like C0G/NP0 or U2J, though; those are pretty constant with voltage. The capacitors you have are probably X5R or X7R, since type-I ceramics don't come in such high capacitances and Y5V would probably be physically smaller than that for 22 μF/16 V. It likely won't be a problem here, since you're using the capacitor at well below its rated voltage (the voltage must be less than 6.3 V, probably 5 V, since the old capacitor was rated for 6.3 V!) and it looks like a fairly large one. Always good to keep in mind though!

Thank u for this. I just bought a sonyn a casio. Was hopping we could make em useful. Love retro tech n giving them new life.

this was awesome, thank you for making this!

I used to have one. Loved it until analog went away. Got an rf adapter for cable wire and gave it to my bedridden sister who still had analog cable. It was easier for her to view than having to sit up and watch TV.

The VHF/UHF switch broke on my FD-10 as well. What I did was desolder it, bend a capacitor lead in a U shape the size of the original and melt it in with the soldering iron. Works great.

My parents have one of those, and I think it still works. At least I think they still have it. I'll check the next time I visit.

Fun fact: The LADDA batteries from IKEA is basically named CHARGE, but in Swedish. 🙂

Another episode of Andrian's Analog Attic! Love it! The blue Ladda's are slightly larger than alkaline batteries, yes. If you need ones that are exactly the same size, go for the brown Ladda's. They have less capacity, but they do fit.

One of these would be perfect for a retro portable emulator box. Add a Pi Zero and mod in a LiPo and other gubbings. Fascinating video.

@22:22 I expected it to get worse when you hit a suspect cap. Capacitors have three primary properties: Capacitance (of course), ESR (every knows about it since the invention of SMPS) and leakage. When you heat a capacitor, ESR goes down (gets better), and at the same time, leakage goes up (gets worse). You reported that when you take the device out of storage, the problem is worse, and it gets better when you run the device some time. Assuming that the effect of getting better is caused by the device getting warm due to operation, we could conclude that this is obviously an ESR issue, not a leakage issue, because leakage would not improve due to heat. So why did I still suspect leakage? The ESR improvement of warm capacitors is directly tied to the temperature. If you leave the device powered off for like 30 minutes, ESR should be back to the initial bad value. We would have seen the issue at the start of the video. We would have seen the issue again after you tore the thing down. But we didn't. The effect is on a much longer time scale. And *that's* what shouts "leakage" to me. It's a known issue that old electrolytic caps "lose formation" over time which just means increased leakage. Sometimes, they can be re-formed by applying current limited voltage slightly above the rated voltage, but oftentimes they go leaky in a matter of hours to days again. That matches your observation of "the effect only happens after the device was in storage for some time". Now, the last piece missing: Why does it get *better* when you run the device for some time, even though leakage gets worse on heating? We certainly are not cooling the cap by running the device! Well, as the device runs, it seems to put DC bias on the cap. And the DC leakage current does slight re-formation of the cap which reduces leakage! @26:45 While indeed the cap did have high ESR, which is a sign of a cap in bad shape, I suspect this cap is used as a supply voltage buffer cap, just like in the soundless Amiga you had recently, and connected to battery voltage to a resistor to improve noise rejection. Leakage in that cap creates extra current drain over the resistor, which will drop the operating voltage of the vertical deflection stage. Try measuring the cap on the 200kOhm range: If my theory is right, the meter will *not* go into "overload", but show a some hundred ohms to a couple of kiloohms. @18:15 I made similar experience with "Kontakt 61" by the German branch of CRC Industries, which seems to be a similar product to Deox-IT. I applied it to the polarity switch in a Tamiya kangaroo. This is a mechanical toy where you assemble everything (like battery "holder", the polarity switch and so on) from scratch as a teaching experience. The plastic case of the polarity switch got instantly brittle and broke down into many small shards. Obviously, some polymers are destroyed by the solvents of typical contact cleaners.

$5 is a crazy good bargain 👍👍😆 NiMh batteries have definitely NOT always been larger. I remember our first nicad batteries in the early 80"s, they were definitely the same size as "normal" batteries... The "touchy" switch is likely dry joints. Your technique of heating caps to find a fault is REALLY helpful 👍

I bought several of these years ago when I was reminded about them. I got them on ebay cheap and every one of them work well, some had a slightly better picture but they all worked. I remember as a young man seeing commercials about them and thinking how cool it would be to have one, then early lcd ones came out and I got several cheap. Eventually I got a active matrix color one and that looked great, very sharp and bright with great color. Now you can't really use them except for some low power stations. I got several of the newer 7 inch digital tuner sets that even display what resolution the station is broadcasting even though it only plays like 640x480 or similar. Never found one that actually displays some form of read HD but they may have them now. I still have several Beltron CRT rejuvinaters and lots of vacuum tubes stashed away, plus some excellent tube testors if you ever need help and I'm local to Portland.

This is a cool device because of the way the picture tube worked. Always wanted to cut the tube and seal just the electron gun in a vacuum. Then project onto a phosphorus xray screen. Never did it because I didn’t know what I was doing. Would try it now

That difference in battery size may be really manufacturer dependent. I have a few sets of 1800 mAh Ni-MH batteries which fit all of my battery holders just fine, and one or two sets from a different manufacturer which are slightly bigger and they're a tight squeeze, even though they're the same capacity.

A word of warning: ceramic capacitors often behave nonlinearly so they are a poor choice in some circuits. It seems to be fine here but you might want to keep it in mind in case future repairs have strange effects. Bob Andersen (bandersentv) did some tests with ceramic caps in his Philco Safari TV where the effects were noticeable. Incidentally the Safari is (AFAIK) the first real personal portable TV and was released in 1957 or so, well before the Watchman.

I love the way they designed the screens on these little TV's.

I don't remember having problems fitting rechargerables before the Eneloop era. IKEAs are Eneloops AFAIK and they're fatter. It might help just a little bit if you rotate the cells so the sticker seams don't touch each other. edit: looking at an old 1900 mAh Eneloop and newer 2450 mAh IKEA (Eneloop pro?), the 2450 has a tiny bit longer shell and shorter positive stud, I think this once caused a connection issue in a cheap tecsun radio and I had to bend the positive terminal to make it work. That radio does not like the thickness either, but some old Varta NiMH fit in there nicely. The old Eneloops seem to be slightly longer than other batteries, but this 2450 one went too far I think.

What pretty much everyone don´t think about in old caps is the parallell leakage resistance in these caps get lower making current flow through the caps causing issues shown here. you cannot simply measure this with the ESR or multimeter, you need a real leakage tester to check this. But no one talks about it even if this is one of the most important things to keep in mind on old gear

Amazing troubleshooting to find that sub-par cap!

Fascinating. I didn't realize it was this complex inside.

I have one similar made in 1991. It powers up, but with one issue. It only shows snow on the screen being that Analog television has been shut down for a couple of decades here in sunny Arizona. It made me sad that it was replaced with inferior Digital TV. At times it pixlates worse than a face pixlated for anonymity purposes and sometimes stutters and sputters and raises all sorts of Caine, causing great aggravation and annoyance when an interesting program comes on, especially during foul weather. However, you can use RF signals from a DTV converter through the Watchman’s antenna. There are videos on how to do that here on RU-vid. A neat little mix of technologies to experiment with.❤

Awesome fix. nice technique with the iron. ESR ftw then. I have a Casio V-400 that is a 2 inch LCD. Need to figure out a clever way to just "up" some stuff to a tunable channel, I'm thinking a Drone headset transmitter. Loved the vid. Rando WPM stats The spoken duration of the video is: 2057 seconds - 274.58281 of silence 7332 total words spoken in HMS: 00:29:42 of total time: 00:34:17 excluding 00:04:34 silence 246 de-silenced wpm

That transcoder card thing is slick for what you need!

I've had similar issues with AA batteries. I spent over an hour going down this rabbit hole a few weeks ago. From what I've read the NiMH and (possibly) some other rechargeables (in many cases if not all) come in a housing that is technically longer than that of the alkaline, but the length of the button terminal is shortened to accommodate the slight change. The diameter is supposed to be the same regardless, but the battery wrappers can vary in thickness.

IRC Sony did make a single gun color flat CRT that used invisible UV phopher strips between the color ones to drive a beam switcher via a UV photo diode. I don't know if these were ever mass produced or even got out of prototype phase before color LCDs took over.

As I understand it the larger capacity Ni-MH batteries are larger than a regular primary cell equivalent, but the lower capacity ones are the same size as a regular primary cell batteries. At 2450 mAh you are getting close to the max capacity of a Ni-MH cell and I believe you need to go below 2000mAh to get thinner Ni-MH batteries.

Watching this with my phone that I use al the time to watch videos is quite amazing

You really could have used a mirror. They were standard equipment in every TV repair technician's kit.

We had these yellow and red Eveready NiCAD batteries as a kid. They were slightly fatter than regular batteries. It was a constant issue with some of our toys.

In that timeframe (87-91), rechargeable batteries were insanely expensive, had “memory” issues and usually were way under powered. I vaguely remember then being $10 each-ish and a mAh rating around 1000. Closer to the batteries found in solar lamps. I actually had a Realistic cassette player that took four batteries. I think the batteries+charger was $50ish then. (Which sounds minor now but for me, that was like four entire gas tanks of fuel then… leaded of course.)

On your question about the size of NiCad batteries, I remember them being the same as traditional AA batteries. It's been a long time since I've used them, but this is what I remember.

I love collecting the B&W Sony Watchmans. There were many variants and sizes.

Funnily enough, I have a set of GP Ni-MH rechargables, both AA and AAA, and while I didn't notice any issues with the AAs, the AAA ones seem to be actually SMALLER than actual AAA batteries, I tried to use it in a digital temperature-clock-thing (it has a station outside that reads temperature and wirelessly transmits it to the main unit, which also shows time), and not only do their lower voltage make them near unusable (the damn thing basically stops working when voltage of normal batteries dips around 1.2V), but the rechargables were not even making good contact.

I used to restore them when my Shop sold and Did warranty work on Sony products I own 3 different Sony Watchman Tv's I also have the factory service manuals !

Wow, I never considered heating electrolytic cans to roughly troubleshoot a bad part! Very clever!

Really Interesting

those new ceramic ones are MLCC? I bought a bunch like you, too, hahah. They're ridiculous (specs, price, size) and replace the smaller band of electrolytics really nicely! I think their downside is that if they are mechanically stressed they can crack internally, and putting mounting strips (or legs in your case) onto it helps with that!

You should set your RF modulator/broadcaster to channel 62. Would be a great movie reference. 😂

awesome fixing

If the 8-bit guy is the king of retrobright, Adrian is the king of deoxit.

Once you have desoldered a bad capacitor, it will often improve due to the heating, so the measurement may look much better than it actually was when on the board. It's best, if possible, to snip a lead and measure it cold.

These must have taken so much time to actually manufacture back in the day but i sooooo wanted one.

A lot of battery manufacturers fudge the physical dimensions on the high side to get a greater mAh rating they can boast about, and just hope it will still fit in most devices.

ooo that screwdriver (ceramic?). Didn't know I needed one but it makes sense that they exist! _Don't mind me, just adding some to my Amazon cart..._

Nice tip on cap testing by heat.

I recall drooling over the manual I found somewhere when I was a kid, but I never had the thing that goes with the manual… 🤤

I haven't used them for about 10 years but from what I remember only high capacity NiMh AAs were wider than their non rechargeable equivalents. Perhaps over 1800-2200 mAh depending on the brand.

I just got a Sinclair TV80,, from 1983 which also has a sideways tube. It uses electrostatic deflection instead of magnetic deflection that most CRTs use. It's a 2" screen and a little smaller than the Sony.

Regarding the batteries being slightly larger. I have experienced that too with other rechargeable batteries

Is it possible that the soldering iron test actually cooked one of the other capacitors and introduced the brightness issue?

Modded mine with AV in, you can also use a USB to power it.

I have one of these Watchmans (though older than yours, manufactured November 1987, and in red!), and I'd like to set up some sort of transmitter to play around with it a little bit. Currently researching a solution!

The difference in length is most likely the builtin overcharge protection in modern versions of this type of battery! The difference in diameter is not something that I have noticed myself with the batteries I have used... Could it maybe be different diameters in batteries from different manufacturers?

"Sony, the one and only", if you remember that ad slogan. Great video on a bygone piece of mobile history. 👍

You sire, can fix everything!

I did have a later one (Mid 1990s) that had a LCD screen and colour - I think it was a Casio rather than a Sony. It was great as a novelty but even then a difficult watching experience, and it needed a lot of battery.

Very COoL. Fun Fact: The image (CRT) is on the "back side" of the Japanese domestic models. US models have the "back side" on the front. Believe it or not.

Isn't Blonder Tongue an adult film? Good that you didn't get a shock this time!

I wonder if you could put your own tint (like window tint) on the front to minimize the light getting in (a lot of vintage CRT sets had tinted safety glass for example). You could even experiment with different color tints, maybe amber or green tint (i'd personally like to see blue or cyan/aqua)

Reminds me of "Space 1999" !..cheers.

Rechargeable batteries are sometimes ever so slightly larger than nonrechargeables so that you can't put the nonrechargeables into the charger by mistake. They should be too small to stay put and fall out on their own. But they shouldn't be so large that they are hard to slot into devices. We're talking no more than a millimeter in length difference and sometimes a similar proportion in diameter. All of this is manufacturer specific, though.

I bought a Sony CD Player remote from 1985, and I noticed the same thing when I put my IKEA Ladda batteries in it as well. Super unfortunate, I wonder if the Ikea ones are just bigger than standard batteries

Very interesting.

25:43 "That completely fixed it! Nice!" Next moment ( 25:47 ) the video played through the watchman goes "... It's working!" 😊

Yeah batts can be a pain especially with 🔦 flashlights lol You dont want too big in those or they will be really stuck in the shaft Had to destroy a few getting them out also in some beard trimmers

The manual is available from SAMS. It is # 206226 and is listed as OEM Service.

I believe it was the Sinclair Microvision that should probably get credit for the personal portable TV around 1977.

I had a mirror at the back of the bench when I used to service old CRT monitors. Shame about that switch!

Don't forget that NiMH batteries are 1.2v instead of 1.5v which will make some current sensitive devices to not function properly. Before I even try and fix anything I install fresh alkaline batteries. Looking forward to your future repair of a Coleco Adam computer.

Maybe shrink wrap the contraption and write the values on a reliable sticker as well as the make, model and c number on the PCB. Maybe you can find a replacement for the switch too while you're at it.

Rechargeable batteries have always been a bit larger, at least going back to the early 90's. But I also feel they have grown a bit. I'm having issues fitting them into old gameboys and such. That was not a problem back then.

I wonder if when you were checking for bad caps with the iron, it pushed one or more failing caps over the edge and quickly shortened their life?

I have the same sony TV, and i damaged it... with a wrong power Supply, ic Chip goes Bad :( The picture is full of Issues. now. But i have also a Bigger Model, that works 100% Tank you for that video.

Wow that one cap..I would have get in that thing it's so tiny. I had similar watchman in the mid 90s I used as 3rd shift security guard to help keep me awake.

Nimh also have a lower voltage so they run-out quicker. I haven't had a problem with ALDI rechargeable.

Some brand like Energizer make same size as their alkaline counterparts The growth of the rechargeable allows for a bit more energy in them Energizer are 2000mAh when others can go to 2500mh or even more. I have the same issue as you have there with some po microphone body packs, flashlights,......

Adrian have a look for the Sony Mega Watchman FD510, i think you will want one haha

Well hello Adrian. :)

I'm getting flashbacks of a CRT similar to this for a door-videocomm and high voltage going through the power wire with fingers getting zapped as he tries to switch off the power. Lmao! I wonder who that was, hmmmm? ... And yes, those cute lil CRT's can still give you a funny belting if not careful. lol😎

High mAh IKEA cells are a bit thicker than others. Certainly bigger than alkalines. I haven't measured though. They barely fit in a MagLite

Some NiCd battery manufacturers did "fudge" battery sizes to squeeze in more power.

My first TV! circa 1990

I really hate that analog broadcasting went the way of the dodo, they're far more fault tolerant circuits to work on in an emergency like extreme weather events. I've sat out more than a few hurricanes with a battery powered set watching the previously-mandated analog broadcast news channels where I live.

I wonder if they went right up to the top of the AA size spec, or even a bit over, to get that bigger mAh rating. It'd be interesting to see some smaller-rated NiMH batteries to see if they are also physically smaller.